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Allen-Bradley PLC Connectivity

ProtoTwin Connect supports the CIP Class 3 Ethernet/IP protocol for connection to ControlLogix, CompactLogix, MicroLogix and Micro800 PLCs.

Server Configuration

Click the “Add Server” button in the “Servers” tab of the IO Browser. ProtoTwin Connect can automatically discover Ethernet/IP devices on your local network. Select the “Discovery” tab to start searching for compatible devices. Click the desired device to automatically populate the server configuration. Alternatively, you can manually configure the server if you know the IP address of the PLC. The following configuration options must be specified:

  • Protocol: Select “Ethernet/IP” from the list.
  • Name: Enter a (preferably) unique name, which will be used to identify the server.
  • Host: Enter the static IP address of the PLC.
  • Type: Select the type of the PLC (ControlLogix, CompactLogix, MicroLogix or Micro800).
  • Scan Rate: Enter the desired scan rate, which is the interval (in seconds) at which ProtoTwin Connect will read and write tag values.

Note that the scan rate is the desired interval at which tags are read and written. The actual rate will depend on the performance of the PLC and networking latency. You can set the scan rate to zero in order to read/write as fast as possible.

Save the configuration to add the server.

Importing Tags

Select the server and then click the “Import Tags” button to automatically import all the compatible tags from the PLC. Please note that ProtoTwin Connect does not currently support UDTs or Arrays. Please refer to the IO Browser documentation for the complete list of supported data types.